Hockey loses edge on Monarch in 5-2 loss

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Monarch High School scored on Summit's hockey team within the first 20 seconds of Wednesday's game, putting the Tigers back on their paws from the start.

Though Summit (3-7 overall, 2-4 Foothills) recovered enough to respond with two goals, Monarch outplayed the Tigers, putting up 35 shots to Summit's 20. The game ended in a 5-2 loss for the Tigers.

One of Summit's two goals came from George Kamins, who scored the second goal of his high school career off an assist from Luke Egging and Sean Farley. Jack Nevicosi followed that up with a goal of his own on a power play, assisted by Farley, who has turned into a playmaker when teams look to shut down his action in front of the net.

The team wasn't able to maintain the lead though, as the rest of the period was dominated by Monarch, whose Joey Buchan and Jack Christofferson each scored goals to end the first period with Summit lagging behind, 3-2. Zero Summit goals in periods two and three landed the Tigers the loss.

"When we get leads or when we score first, it's frustrating when we don't stay with the same intensity and don't continue to put the same pressure on," head coach Chris Ruhly said. In last week's game against Regis Jesuit, the team scored in the first minute, but then let Regis tally 10 goals without a response. On Wednesday night, the team held the lead at 2-1 for the majority of the first period before letting the game go.

"I thought we played very well at times, and that's been kind of the theme of the season. We play well at times and not all the time. It's something we've been trying to put in people's minds for the past few years: It's a 51-minute game, and we're not playing all 51 minutes," Ruhly said.

The four unanswered goals all came from mistakes the team can learn from, the coach said.

"It's not passing the puck up the middle. It's chips and dumps off the boards and glass. It's turning around to pick up the guys coming into the zone and not focusing on the puck. It's coming out ready to play the game," he said.

Now with four losses in conference play, the team is back at practice, preparing for tonight's 5:15 home game against Resurrection Christian.

"We're not quite with the hand on the panic button, but there are some things that need to get corrected, and get corrected immediately," Ruhly said, adding that he would like to continue to see Farley and Nevicosi working together to step further into their offensive leader positions and bring Summit High Tigers victories.